Maxi Métal Inc.
Maxi Métal Inc. is a Canadian fire apparatus manufacturer located in Saint-Georges, Québec, 1 hour south of Québec City. They have built and delivered over 1000 fire trucks. History Maxi Métal Inc. Maxi Métal was formed on 4th July 1972 by Claude Gendron and built their first fire truck in 1984. The company initially built utility bodies made of fiberglass. Since 1996, the company has also developed CAFS systems for fire trucks. The Service de Sécurité Incendie de Saint-Georges, which operates several Maxi Métal-built apparatus, was the first fire department in Québec to have foam systems on all fire trucks. The first prototype was a snuffer unit built on a 1996 Ford F-350 4x4 with a custom fiberglass body. In 2007, Claude Gendron died and his family put the company up for sale. In 2009, the family of the founder sold the company to three area businessmen, Danny Dufour, Martin Rancourt and Yvon Roy. In 2016 Danny Dufour completed the purchase from the partners and is now the sole owner of the company. In 2010, Maxi Métal won a 5-year 35 pumper contract with Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal for over $16 million. This is the biggest contract in the history of the company. In 2018, Maxi Métal won another 5-year 35 pumper contract with Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal for nearly $37 million, surpassing the 2010 contract as the biggest contract in the history of the company. Les Industries C.P. Morisette Inc. Little is know about Les Industries C.P. Morissette Inc. The company was based in Otterburn Park, Québec and the owner, Charles Morissette, designed approximately two dozen trucks (pumpers, tankers and rescues). All trucks were built at the Maxi Métal plant. The company existed probably between 1986 and 1992. After the closure of C.P. Morisette in the early 1990s, Charles Morisette worked for NovaQuintech Corporation. Production Maxi Fire Maxi Métal builds pumpers, tankers and rescues, on both custom and commercial chassis. Historically, most of its sales were to fire departments in Québec, with some deliveries in Atlantic provinces, Alberta and Morocco. Maxi has now delivered trucks across Canada with trucks serving departments in BC, Alberta, Ontario, Nunavut, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. Service de Sécurité Incendie de Montréal and Service de protection contre les incendies de la Ville de Québec and Service de Sécurité Incendie de Lévis are some major fleet customers. They've also rebuilt a number of older rigs. Maxi Métal has only built a small number of ladder trucks in its history, all with old Thibault ladders reconditioned by CET. Econo Series The Econo Series was developed in the early 2000's to create affordable pre-engineered trucks for Québec municipalities. They were offered on Freightliner M2-106, GMC C8500, International 4400 or Kenworth T300 chassis, with 2 or 4-door cabs. The Econo pumper came with a 1050 IGPM Hale pump and 800 imperial gallon water tank. The Econo pumper/tanker came with a 1050 IGPM Hale pump and a 1500 imperial gallon water tank. Both trucks were sold with a hydraulic ladder rack and had a choice of roll-up or hinged doors. PIC Tanker Series The PIC Series, PIC meaning "P'ump '''I'n 'C'ompartment", is part of the Pierce partnership and is commercialized under the branding "Contender by Maxi Métal". The name officially started in 2018 but Maxi Métal had been manufacturing PIC tankers since 2012. The trucks are built with a Hale or Darley PTO pump with a small pump panel located in the first compartment on the driver side of the truck. PIC tankers are built on a large variety of commercial chassis. Reflex Series The Reflex Series is another part of the Pierce partnership. It is a small walk-in rescue built on a Ford E-450 chassis powered with a Ford V10 Triton engine and is similar to utility trucks that Maxi Métal built for Hydro Québec since the late 1990's. The truck can be custom configured by the fire department but usually comes with bunker compartments inside, two SCBA seats in the front of the body and a translucent roof. TME Series The TME Series is also part of the Pierce partnership. TME stands for "'T'op 'M'ount 'E'nclosed". The truck is available on commercial chassis and is equipped with a 1050, 1250 or 1500 IGPM pump with a narrow 26" wide pumphouse. VIO Series In 2010, Maxi Métal revealed its new concept, the VIO fire truck. At the time, it was the narrowest pump panel (26 inches) in Canada with the lowest crosslays at just 65 inches high. This was one of the best selling features at Maxi at the time of editing this page. Pierce Partnership In 2015, after evaluating all the apparatus manufacturers in Canada, Pierce Manufacturing chose Maxi to build a special line of trucks specific for the Canadian market. It is called the '''MaxiSaber and is sold exclusively through Pierce dealers. Maxi Métal and Pierce Manufacturing announced the new partnership in late 2015 and the first deliveries took place in early 2016. Since 2016 all Canadian Pierce dealers are selling Pierce MaxiSaber pumpers, pumper/tankers and rescues. In February 2018, Maxi Métal announced that two lines of trucks, TME pumpers and PIC tankers, will be available in the United States through Pierce dealers under the branding “'Contender' by Maxi Métal”. Maxi Utility Maxi Métal also builds utility trucks for telecommunication and electric companies. Hydro-Québec, Bell Canada and Telus are customers of Maxi Utility and they have delivered over 1000 utility trucks in their history. Maxi 1.png|1st generation Maxi Métal's plate DSCF0490.JPG|2nd generation Maxi Métal's plate DSCF0498.JPG|3rd generation Maxi Métal's plate Dealers Current dealers *Commercial Truck Equipment, Western Canada and Ontario (MaxiSaber and Maxi Métal) (Comtruck was appointed the exclusive Alberta dealer on 21 Sep 2019.) *L'Arsenal, Québec (MaxiSaber and Amiral) *Micmac Fire & Safety, Atlantic provinces (MaxiSaber) Former dealers *Darch Fire (2016-2017) *Westvac Industrial (2015-2019) Demo trucks *2020 Ford F-550 XLT 4x4 / Maxi Métal mini-pumper (1050/200/15F) (January 2020) *2020 Freightliner M2-106 / Maxi Métal PIC pumper/tanker (1050/2400) (February 2020) *2020 Freightliner M2-106 / Maxi Métal PIC tanker (420/2000) (March 2020) *2020 Pierce Saber FR / Maxi Métal VIO pumper (1250/625) *2020 Pierce Saber FR / Maxi Métal VIO pumper (1250/625) *2019 Ford E-450 / Maxi Métal Reflex walk-in medium rescue (May 2019) *2019 Freightliner M2-112 / Maxi Métal VIO pumper/tanker (1250/2500/25F) (December 2019) *2019 Freightliner M2-106 / Maxi Métal PIC pumper/tanker (1050/2000/20A) (October 2019) *2019 Freightliner M2-106 / Maxi Métal PIC pumper/tanker (840/1665) (September 2019) *2018 Freightliner M2-106 / Maxi Métal TME pumper (1050/840/25F) Used trucks currently owned by Maxi Métal Maxi Métal currently uses a number of loaner trucks : Sources *Dubbert, Bob, Shane MacKichan and Joel L. Gebet. Encyclopedia of Canadian Fire Apparatus. Hudson, WI: Iconografix, 2004. See also Departments operating Maxi Métal apparatus External links Maxi FireTruck (English Site) Maxi Incendie (Site en Langue Française) Category:Canadian fire apparatus manufacturers